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Shop Solutions


more advanced capabilities than an old legacy lathe it had in the repair side of the business. Unfortunately, this big newer CNC two-axis lathe with 160" (4-m) long bed fell short when it came to rigidity and durability. Thus, part accuracy suffered. This is when Barber acquired the shop’s first Mazak machine, a Slant Turn Nexus (STN) 500 turning center from Mazak distributor Dixie Mill in New Orleans. Then shortly afterwards, he added a Quick Turn Nexus QTN 350 and a QTN 450, both CNC turning centers also from Mazak. The machines provide Plant Machine Works with unmatched productivity and reduced cycle times across its wide range of shorter and longer, large-diameter shaft-type part applications.


An


Employee Owned Company


Machinist Zachery Downs checks an oil and gas industry part machined from 4140 material on the shop’s Mazak Slant Turn 500 turning machine. Part starts as a solid bar. After center hole is trepanned, it goes to the Slant Turn 500 for turning OD, two different IDs, and inside taper, boring, threading and drilling. Total machining time is 24 hours. The ID alone has 5" (127 mm) of material removed and about 0.500" (12.7 mm) from the OD.


The STN 500 started the ball rolling. Plant Machine Works quickly made the AVLs (approved vendor lists) of practically all of its major local customers for large part turning. These same customers would then have the shop also handle the turning work for all their other divisions located nationwide. Requests for quotes came in not only for big turning work but also for slightly smaller parts, those with 16–23" (406–584 mm) ODs and measuring 16–120" (406–3048-mm) long, as opposed to the shop’s usual parts that ran much bigger. The QTN 350 and QTN 450 machines were acquired to machine these smaller part size jobs.


sales@maford.comwww.maford.com


The STN 500 gives the shop a bed length of 120" and allows it to machine part diameters up to 35.8" (909 mm), as


38 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | December 2013


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